Work Begins to Restore Plants in Wildlife Refuge

Merkel & Associates has been awarded a contract to plant vegetation in the Sweetwater Marsh of the South San Diego National Wildlife Refuge .

The contract was awarded Oct. 4 by the and planting began last week.

Overall, about 12,000 salt marsh plants will be planted, 1/3 of which will be cordgrass in the low marsh area. Cordgrass is the key plant needed to sustain the life history of the federally endangered Light-footed clapper rail, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.

The remaining plants will be put in mid an high marsh which often have high tolerance for salinity and can help protect threatened animals. 

All of the plants were grown from locally-collected seeds in South San Diego bay and the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge.

After this first phase of planting is finished, a second phase will follow, where cordgrass will be harvested from other areas of these two Refuges and planted into Pond 10 within lower marsh elevations. The additional locally-harvested cordgrass may reach up to 50,000 individual plants, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service siad.